Debian and Wireless
In my recent quest to migrate from Ubuntu to Debian, I noticed a fixable nuisance. There is a reasonable chance a default Debian Live ISO or install disk will not recognize a wireless network controller.
By default Debian only supports free/libre software. Most wireless firmware are not free/libre. Without the proprietary firmware, the wireless network controller is not configured.
Installing non-free software is resolvable by editing /etc/apt/sources.list and adding the contrib and non-free repositories.
The trick is getting that first connection to download the appropriate firmware. With missing firmware that can be done only by using Ethernet.
Adding salt to the wound is the live ISO does not include the lspci command. At least the MATE live ISO does not. This treads into WTF territory. To install that command install the pciutils package.
With the lspci command I learn that my Lenovo T400 laptop has an Intel PRO/Wireless 5100 AGN wireless controller. I needed to install the firmware-iwlwifi package. After installing the package the respective kernel module needs to be loaded.
modprobe -r iwlwifi; modprobe iwlwifi
Playing this guessing game is a bit too much for most people. Another option is using an ISO image already containing support for non-free software. A caveat is these images are not “officially” supported and therefore a tad difficult to find. The main web site page does not explicitly mention these unofficial images. The Debian Firmware web page provides a link to these images.
Booting my T400 with a non-free live ISO image recognized the wireless controller just fine. Much easier.
Posted: Category: Usability Tagged: Debian
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